1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a device for the rescue of a person who has fallen out of a nautical vehicle and, particularly, to a device such as this, of the type including means of assistance taken on board the vehicle and designed to be put into the water upon command by a radio-electrical signal which is automatically emitted by an emitter of signals such as this, built into an alarm pack carried by the person when he comes into the water.
Searching for a person in the sea, even in medium weather conditions, is difficult because it is not easy to distinguish a person's head accurately on the rough surface of the sea. Moreover, it is not easy to bring the ship back to the position where this fall has occurred, namely to the exact position of the fall.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is a known device, described in the French patent application No. 2.550.020 by A. Neveu and G. Salaun, making it possible to jettison a buoy, without manual intervention, as soon as a man has fallen overboard. As soon as the person is in the water, an emitter of radio-electric signals is turned on through the closing of electrical contacts by conduction of water, or else manually, by the operator, if he is capable of this. The radio signal is received on board the vessel, from which the fall has taken place, by a receiver which activates the jettisoning of a rescue buoy as well as the illumination of a flashing beacon and an alarm siren. In addition, the receiver then actuates the stoppage of the motor and, if necessary, that of the automatic guidance system. The buoy, having been thus jettisoned in a very short time, drifts in the same way as the castaway, following the winds or currents at a very short distance from him.
While this device makes it possible to increase the chances of survival of persons overboard or castaways, notably in the case of lone navigators, it nevertheless has major drawbacks.
Firstly, the jettisoning of the buoy through the closing of electrical contacts by means of water, is a source of false alarms because it often happens that a navigator gets wet on the bridge of the vessel, hence without falling overboard.
Furthermore, the person overboard or castaway himself is not located and it is then difficult to find him in a sufficiently short period because, generally, there is soon a large distance between the man overboard or castaway and his craft.
An object of the present invention, therefore, is the making of a device such as this enabling a person to be located at sea so that he can be quickly pulled out from it.
Another object of the present invention is to make a device to rescue a person at sea, the use of which is well protected from being triggered in an untimely way.